tui-tools

Terminal tools for Linux that show you the system as it is, and preview the exact command line of every change before running it.

Each one is a single static binary. No daemon, no state of its own, nothing left running after you quit. They share a palette, a key language and one promise: the command in the confirm dialog is the command that executes.

tui-tools.github.io — every tool, with screenshots, install commands per package manager, checksums and what each one can do to your machine. It is built from each repository's own tool.json, so a new tool appears there on its first release without anyone editing a page.

Tool	What it does
tui-firewall	The system firewall: rules, policies, logging. ufw today, firewalld planned.
tui-systemd	systemd units: what failed, the journal that explains why, timers, boot times.
tui-snapper	btrfs snapshots, managed by snapper: the history, what changed between any two, and undo.
tui-network	Links, addresses, routes and DNS: systemd-networkd and resolved, with the .network file behind each link.
tui-secure	The machine's security posture: Secure Boot, SELinux or AppArmor, the firewall, sshd, updates and accounts, each with the command behind its verdict.
tui-users	Local accounts, groups, authorized keys and sudo: who exists, what each one can do, and what is worth a second look.
tui-update	Pending package updates across pacman, apt and dnf: what they restart or reboot, what is a security fix, and a snapshot before.
tui-disk	Disks, mounts and fstab crossed against each other, btrfs filesystems in full and the SMART health of every drive.
tui-ssh	The SSH server as it really is: the effective sshd_config with a verdict per setting, live sessions, failed logins and host keys.
tui-logs	The systemd journal: every filter a journalctl argument, the command it adds up to on screen, and vacuuming previewed before it runs.
tui-cron	Every scheduled job on one screen, systemd timers and cron together, with each schedule read back in English next to the expression.
tui-cert	Every TLS certificate on the machine, worst first: what expires when, whose key is not its key, and what a server is really serving.
tui-containers	Every container on one screen, docker and podman together: what is wrong first, one container in full, and its log.
tui-samba	The Samba file server: shares worst first with the Unix permissions behind them, the accounts, and who is connected right now.
tui-tailscale	Self-hosted Tailscale from the terminal, both ends of it: the Headscale control plane on this host, and this machine as a tailnet node.
tui-wireguard	WireGuard interfaces and peers, and the host around them: whether the firewall lets a handshake in, forwarding and NAT for a server, and no private key ever on screen.

Also here
tui-kit	The shared foundation: theme, widgets, config loader, command runner.
tui-template	A working skeleton for a new tool. Press Use this template.

Every tool here is a terminal UI in front of someone else's project: headscale, tailscale, ufw, firewalld, nftables, certbot, acme.sh, Samba, snapper, systemd, WireGuard and more. If you are an official maintainer of one of those projects, you are welcome to contribute to the tool that drives it with pull requests. If you would like to take over or share the maintenance of that tool, get in touch and we can look at making you a maintainer of its repository. The people responsible for a project are the ones best placed to shape the terminal UI in front of it.

Reach Edimar on X at @edimarlnx, or open an issue in the tool's repository labelled upstream. If you cannot set labels there, put the word in the title and it will be added for you. The site lists which projects each tool drives.

tui-firewall --demo
tui-systemd --demo
tui-snapper --demo
tui-network --demo
tui-secure --demo
tui-users --demo
tui-update --demo
tui-disk --demo
tui-ssh --demo
tui-logs --demo
tui-cron --demo
tui-cert --demo
tui-containers --demo
tui-samba --demo
tui-tailscale --demo
tui-wireguard --demo

--demo runs against sample data. Every key works, every command is built and previewed for real, and nothing touches your system.

They hold for every tool here.

• Preview, then confirm. No tool changes anything without first showing the exact command line. The confirm dialog is the only path to a mutation, and the value it displays is the value that runs.
• Read-only by default. Starting a tool only reads state.
• No daemon, no state of its own. The system is the source of truth; the tools re-read it after every change.
• Runs as you. Reads work unprivileged wherever the underlying tool allows it; only an action escalates, through sudo -n, which never prompts.
• Backend behind an interface. The UI never names a binary, which is what lets tui-firewall grow a firewalld backend without touching its screens.
• Responsive. Layouts adapt from a 40-column pane to a full screen.

Every tool is tui-<target>: the repository, the Go module, the binary and the config directory all carry that one name, with no aliases. tui-<name>-<solution> only when a target genuinely needs disambiguating.

The default palette is Tokyo Night. If you run Omarchy, the tools read your active desktop theme from ~/.config/omarchy/current/theme/colors.toml and follow it, so switching your desktop theme switches every tool. TUI_THEME overrides, and NO_COLOR drops color while keeping layout.

Unofficial. These tools follow the Omarchy visual style and read its theme files. They are not part of the Omarchy project and are not endorsed by its maintainers.

The list the family set out to build is complete: every tool above exists, runs and has a --demo. What comes next is depth rather than breadth — a firewalld backend for tui-firewall, so Fedora and RHEL-family machines get the same screens ufw users have today.

Which means the next tool is whichever one somebody asks for. If there is a part of a Linux machine you keep reading through four commands and a manual page, open an issue on tui-tools/.github and say so.

Early, under validation. Expect rough edges, and please report them — a bug report from a real machine, with the output the tool showed, is the most useful thing anyone can send right now.

MIT, per repository.

Created and maintained by Edimar Cardoso (@edimarlnx on X, edimarlnx on GitHub). Sponsor this work: github.com/sponsors/edimarlnx